Final Exam Notes 1) Political economy ● An examination of society that regards law, economy, and the political environment being interrelated and helps to establish and sustain the social order. In new media studies this typically focuses on an examination of the regulation and ownership of media. ● Focuses on the politics and power relations embedded in technological development ● An understanding of how technologies develop, both historically and currently, requires that close attention be paid to dominant economic relations, social relations of production, military priorities, the role of the state, gender relations, and the maintenance of racist hierarchies of power, intentional or otherwise ● It follows money ● Access to resources at various levels influences the directions that new media developments take ● These resources include access to investment capital; political influence; and to the technologies themselves on the part of potential users ● Inequalities in accessibility relate to social inequality ● Political economy concepts relate to internet governance, the promise of the internet being democratic and decentralized was swept aside when govts deregulated communication systems to give power to specific dominant groups. ● an interdisciplinary branch of the social sciences that focuses on the interrelationships among individuals, governments, and public policy ● Study of how economic systems and political systems are linked ● Political economy (PE) is an approach to studying media whose focus is attenuated towards the ways in which media is produced, distributed and consumed, rather than on analyzing the interpretations of the signs and symbols found within texts. ● In other words, PE focuses upon the ways in which politics and economics are not separate entities, as we often encounter them within educational contexts, but that economics and politics are fields which are best understood as being entangled – meaning that they are functionally inseparable – and that understanding elements of this entanglement is pivotal to understanding the way that any society and culture works. ● Related Concepts - Internet Governance 2) Immaterial Labour ● Participatory media is vulnerable to the accusation that the immaterial labor of participants is being co-opted by owners of websites without any meaningful control over how it is being used ● Believes that the labor exists outside of the minimum wage based labor consideration and actually includes the time invested in producing these activities as well as the activity itself of producing these commodities ● User generated content is a big example of this ● Related Concepts - Platforms 3) Surveillance & privacy ● Surveillance - Referred to as the close observation of someone. This notion of how companies are seeing and capturing our private behavior, bundling it, and selling it: using it as a kind of commodity. Surveillance is deeply connected to the existence and viability of the modern state and modernity itself ● Example of the kids taking the school laptops home and the pictures being taken. ● Influencers and celebrities seem to have waived all their rights to privacy by joining the industry ● Privacy - ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. ● As of today, our public and personal lives are being surveilled without us knowing ● Many forms of state or commercial surveillance have existed in specific contexts of exchange and disclosure. When surveillance leaves these contexts, it poses a problem. ● Teens want to be with friends on their own terms without supervision. Networked publics that they inhabit allow them a measure of privacy and autonomy that is not possible at home. This is important to recognize to understand teens' relationship with social media. Teen engagement with public life through social media is not a rejection of privacy ● With the introduction of social media, privacy is sometimes referred to as a luxury product ● To live in a functioning society it is necessary to give up some amount of privacy and to be known. ● Examples of surveillance: Bank has access to credit history, public pension plans have access to tax records, contemporary consumer profiling (using private information for ads generation). 4) Governance ● Connects the government sector (what government does) with the private sector (what business does). And the understanding of how this plays a role in internet law, policy and regulation. ● The combination of policy, regulation, law, commercial/consumer practices and organizational behavior. ● In the face of considerable uncertainty as to who has control of the internet, there is much concern over “internet governance”. ● Cyber libertarianism - can trust privately owned platforms to self-regulate (opposite of governance/contradictory notion) ● Increase of significance for internet governance due to growth of internet and user base diversity, cyber libertarianism is less applicable now. ● When interest rates increase, advertising money and communication money is the first to be cut ● In the case of twitter, we will probably see the users choosing the types of ads they wish to see ● Internet regulation can be understood in terms of governance rather than law or policy. The concept of governance recognizes links between the public and private sectors. There is an understanding of the various roles played in internet law and policy, as well as the ways in which such processes increasingly cross territorial jurisdictions. ● The concept of internet governance is useful as an alternative to strong notions of cyber-libertarianism, which view the infrastructure of the internet as manageable through self -governance. ● Internet regulation can be understood in terms of governance. ● Governments influence technology development through subsidies and tax incentives, control of new media policy through investments in underlying technologies. Protection of privacy and safety in new media. Declining to regulate is a strategy implemented by governments. ● Related Concepts - Globalization, platforms, internet regulation 5) Regulatory capture ● Happens when a political entity is undercut by the very forces it is trying to regulate ● Govt policies are then developed in favor of a special group instead of the public. ● Revolving door concept can be used to understand how regulatory capture works. - Exit Stage: government official exits public office to take up a position in a private office that is close to whatever field they were regulating - Entry Stage: private sector executives leave their position to join the public sector. Tasked with regulating their former sector. - Circular: Individual leaves private sector, joins the public sector then leaves and joins the private sector again, bringing in knowledge and contacts from the government. Common model in big tech companies. ● Research policies can be captured too. ● In politics, regulatory capture is a form of corruption of authority that occurs when a political entity, policymaker, or regulator is co-opted to serve the commercial, ideological, or political interests of a minor constituency, such as a particular geographic area, industry, profession, or ideological group. ● FCC - federal communication commission - Regulates communication commission infrastructure - Michael K Powell left his position in 2003 as the chair of the FCC. In 2011, he joined the national cable and telecom association as their CEO. This company is a tech company that advocates for major telecom players. - The argument that was raised was that the FCC seemed to be serving these telecom companies in this manner. - Study raised the question of the regulatory bodies really serve the public interest - Competing argument - so it it an affordable telecom structure 6) Platforms ● The mass consolidation of data on social patterns and habits gives platforms unprecedented power over daily life. ● One of the most important impacts of social media in today's world lies within its ability to distribute information to the whole world. With most people on some other social media platforms today, no news of importance cools down without proper discussion. ● These platforms gather data regarding human behavior and use over several years, and then will sell it ten or so years later for a large price, benefitting from the consumers ● Data centralization - Social media business models saw them become centralized platforms for gathering data (both from users and by purchasing it from brokers) and targeting users with ads. ● There is both an upside and downside to platforms. We as individuals are able to express our creativity and individuality through these platforms, but at the cost of the sharing of our data. ● Algorithms play a central role in selecting what information platforms determine is most relevant to us. ● The term platforms can be used to connect amateur content creators with audiences. ● Media and businesses are not only being transferred to an online world but also being fully hosted and enabled by large players who build entire ecosystems for interactions, conversations and commerce that live entirely on a single device. ● Platform economy - The extent to which the modern economy has become dependent on and is built upon mainly online platforms. ● The most common example of platform economy is Facebook as it hosts personal profiles as well as business profiles, carries messages and also enables transactions through facebook marketplace. ● Another example; Amazon as it hosts products from millions of companies. Some products are entirely digital while others are physical products. Conversations are held on the same platform. And many people not only buy products using amazon’s platform but also themselves are vendors of products and services on the platform. ● Platforms describe what is and isn't respectable for audiences ● Related Concepts - Data centralization, participatory culture, platform economy, surveillance 7) Knowledge economy Definition Para: Knowledge economy refers to an economy characterized by a high level of dependence internally and in the form of trade on the knowledge creation, distribution and exports. This economy can also be simply defined as the buying and selling of knowledge. ● A system of consumption and production that is based on intellectual capital ● The buying and selling of knowledge is referred to as the global knowledge economy ● An economy characterized by a high level of dependence internally and in the form of trade on the knowledge creation, distribution and exports. ● Buying/selling of knowledge. We see an increase in the diversity of sources through which information is acquired. ● For this economy to succeed, it's necessary to invest in research and education. ● Labor force globalization is a key component of the knowledge economy as labor processes and creates information which later develops into knowledge. ● Ideas and intangible assets are more valuable in this economy than tangible assets. ● Knowledge push: The growth in outputs in education and scientific research arising from public and private investment, and the ways in which ICTs speed up the production, collection, and dissemination of such research outcomes ● Market pull: Factors including economic globalization, increased competition, greater sophistication in consumer demand, and the growing importance of intangible assets ● The rise of the services sector, where there is a “more or less direct relationship between one or more service provider and one or more service customer” Extra Information Connected to Knowledge Economy ● Buying and selling of knowledge is referred to as the global knowledge economy - A knowledge economy is different from an information economy because knowledge is learned over time and enables action - Remember! It is different from the “attention economy,” made up of “likes” and subscribers, which can generate income but doesn’t typically add value ● You need to invest in research and education to get a knowledge economy to succeed ● Global knowledge economy arose by the convergence of three aspects - The ubiquity of new media and globally networked ICTs - The ongoing and complex process of globalization - The growing use of knowledge as a tool for wealth creation 8) Networked publics ● Publics that are restructured by networked technologies. Social media has restructured the public providing online sites for communication and connection. ● They are simultaneously: 1) The space constructed through networked technologies 2) The imagined community that emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology and practice. ● The rise of social media and networking encouraged networked publics. ● Allows a measure of privacy and autonomy. ● Connected to the concept of affordance. 9) Affordance ● Affordance refers to what an environment offers to an individual and how it leads to certain practices and actions. ● What is new and what is not? We must recognize how technology introduces new social possibilities and how these challenge assumptions people have about everyday interactions. ● The design and architecture of environments enable certain types of interaction to occur. ● The characteristics of an environment are affordances because they make possible—and, in some cases, encourage—certain types of practices. ● Affordance of networked publics - Networked publics have different characteristics than traditional physical public spaces. Four affordances shape the mediated environments that are created by social media. Although these affordances are not in and of themselves new, their relation to one another because of networked publics creates new opportunities and challenges. They are: - persistence: the durability of online expressions and content; - visibility: the potential audience who can bear witness; - spreadability: the ease with which content can be shared; and searchability: the ability to find content. 10) eCommerce ● Online transactions including consumer purchases and B2B transactions (which accounts for more than 90% of electronic commerce transactions). ● Includes both physical and virtual goods. ● Businesses have to develop an ecommerce strategy. ● eCommerce enabled ease of access to a diverse range of sources. We see a falling cost of personal computing and growing ease of internet access. Also allows for one-to-many communication and direct to one interaction. ● The form of eCommerce depends on three factors - The product or service sold - The transaction process - The nature of the delivery agent or intermediary ● Businesses become highly specialized by implementing this aspect. - Can target a specific audience with reduced inventory and overhead costs - Pull type management - customer orders and then in time production is enabled. There is also the ongoing production of automated production and delivery, which gives rise to shorter wait times ● This enables consumers to undertake transactions 24 hours a day from any place and for a diverse number of objects. ● Consumers can compare objects and prices, easily through websites. And can get these objects delivered to them very easily while interacting with other consumers as well. ● Infrastructure is constantly changing. Disintermediation - producers and consumers access each other directly. Reintermediation - intermediary functions remain but are conducted by the new ecommerce marketing logics. ● Difference between pure and impure eCommerce. If you buy a book online, it's not considered pure eCommerce if you are receiving a physical copy. If it's an ebook, it's pure eCommerce. But if it’s a physical copy that you are purchasing from a website such as Amazon, it is impure eCommerce because the final product is delivered through physical transportation systems. If you are getting an eBook, then it’s pure. Purchasing songs or subscriptions for apple music is pure as the whole product exists in an electronic form. eCommerce stands for electronic commerce and refers to the buying/purchasing of assets (either physical or virtual) or products online. This can happen between businesses (B2B) or between a business and its consumer (B2C). The B2B transactions account for over 90% of the eCommerce transactions today. 11) Gig economy ● An economy that includes many people working in short term, transient work often online but not necessarily. Example Uber ● a labor market that relies heavily on temporary and part-time positions filled by independent contractors and freelancers rather than full-time permanent employees - working in a platform economy. ● Hiring oneself through online services. ● Not permanent work, only temporary jobs offered by independent contracts mostly part time. ● Benefits: Additional income ● Risk: No Health benefits or job security 12) Astroturfing ● Recently, more traditional concerns relating to media—quality and origin— have started to arise to a growing degree (e.g., concerns around fake news and Canadian content). Concerns over astroturfing and manipulation. ● When companies or individuals mask their motives by putting it under the guise of a grassroots movement. Used to generate publicity and sway public opinion while acting like they had nothing to do with it. ● Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source's financial connection. ● Concept of Astroturfing can be seen when machine generated comments in Online forums and platforms such as Fb can be seen to support or oppose any political and commercial policy or aspect when no such thing actually exists. ● These comments are driven by algorithms or machine learning and can be said to constitute a form of artificial intelligence. 13) Network information economy ● Based on communication ● A system of production, distribution, and consumption of information goods characterized by decentralized individual action carried out through widely distributed, nonmarket means that do not depend on market strategies ● Online internet reservation systems are an example of this. The information being available on one page makes it easier for consumers to determine which service they deem adequate ● Key driver of this economy is the generalization of the internet and networked personal computing and the falling cost of accessing ICTs. ● Rise of information, knowledge and creative industries has led to a boost to the networked information economy. 14) Globalization ● The process by which markets, technologies, cultures and businesses are homogenizing and becoming accessible everywhere on the planet. ● The process of moving jobs and capital to the place where they will reap the largest return. ● Globalization describes the collection of interrelated processes including the ever increasing international flows of people, money and information in support of trade, production, finance and cultural industries. ● Also seen as an increasing reliance on international standards, rules and laws. Example WHO ● Rise of the knowledge economy is due to globalization. ● Despite globalization there is unequal access to information and technology in many parts of the world. ● Globalization is used as an omnibus term to describe and make sense of a collection of interrelated processes, including the ever -increasing international flows of people, money, and information in support of trade, production, finance, and cultural industries ● A term used to describe how trade and technology have made the world into a more connected and interdependent place. Globalization also captures in its scope the economic and social changes that have come about as a result. ● Expansion of creative industries is linked to five trends of globalization - Deregulation of national, cultural and media policy frameworks - Increasing average global incomes - Technological changes, particularly the role played by the internet in the global distribution of digital media content - The global rise of service industries - The general expansion of international trade 15) Copyright ● Ability for one to claim their intellectual property ● Own copyright laws, making copying expensive ● Become extremely easy to copy ● When copyright laws first became defined, it was understood that you remain that right for a short period of time ● Now redefined as mickey mouse laws in US ● Major film structures and companies were reluctant to put their content online due to piracy and copyright infringement worries. ● Protection of 14 years for the author of an original work as an incentive to produce new works, and set a limit of 21 years to the time before which control over the rights to previously published works was ceded from publishers to the public domain. ● Works exist in the public domain for fair use ● Three aspects, Facts, ideas and concepts are not themselves copyrightable. Instead, the way one creatively expresses these facts, ideas and concepts. Second, what the creator has an exclusive right to is the creative expression contained in the work, not the physical form in which that work is distributed. Third, copyright law series that make the work more accessible and is deemed to be in the public interest to make material more widely accessible. ● Of the many issues that render copyright law ever more complex and significant in an age of new media and the internet, there are four particularly worthy of attention: - First, the rapid development and mass distribution of technologies that enable low-cost reproduction of data and information have dramatically changed the issues associated with copyright law - Second, the rise of a knowledge-based or creative economy has seen intellectual property rights become a key source of new corporate wealth - Third, copyrighted products are now a part of global popular culture to a historically unprecedented degree - Fourth, copyright and intellectual property law has been progressively globalized over time ● John Perry predicted the fall of copyright in the digital era however, copyright and intellectual property laws have strengthened since the rise of the internet. 16) Digital rights management ● A way to protect copyrights for digital media. Approach includes the use of technologies that limits the copying and use of copyrighted works and proprietary software. ● A set of technical and legal mechanisms applied to help control access to and distribution of copyrighted and other protected materials in the digital environment. ● Development of DRM is complex and expensive. ● Why you can’t find your textbooks online ● Adverse consequences of DRM: - Consumer privacy is violated as the process monitors online users behavior. - Diminished consumer privacy - Reduced innovation potential - Greater imbalance in the relationship between copyright holders and users of copyrighted materials. ● John Perry Barlow predicted the collapse of copyright laws. But instead, these laws have actually been strengthened since the rise of the internet. ● Technological prevention measures and digital rights management - mechanisms through which we use our textbooks. 17) Open-source movement ● The open-source-software movement is a movement that supports the use of open-source licenses for some or all software, as part of the broader notion of open collaboration. The open-source movement was started to spread the concept/idea of open-source software. ● The open-software and free-software movements have pioneered decentralized, networked and collaborative initiatives to develop new forms of software, licensed through non-proprietorial general public licenses. This means not only that users can acquire the software without cost, but they also can acquire access to the source code, which they can in turn apply, modify, or reconfigure. ● A movement begun by programmers that rejects secrecy and centralized control of creative work and supports decentralization, transparency and unrestricted (open) sharing of information. ● Computer software that is offered with full access to the underlying coding, enabling users to change and adopt the software. ● Users can acquire software without cost, and they can also acquire access to the source code, which they can in turn apply, modify or reconfigure. ● Influence of open source can be seen through the web 2.0 environment. ● Connected Concepts - copyright, networked informations economy 18) Panopticon ● Refers to a prison design where a watch tower is located in the middle and inmates are being held around the tower, the guard in the tower cannot be seen by the inmates hence they do not know when they're being watched thus it is believed that they'll behave and policed themselves as they will be under the impression that they are constantly under watch. ● People can be controlled when they believe themselves to be under constant surveillance even if no one is watching. ● Example is CCTV cameras; people tend to behave when they know a CCTV camera is present. ● Panopticism suggests that an individual should never be aware of the exact moment that they are being observed. However, they must be sure that they can be watched. Social media provides hidden surveillance and, hence, it is a strong enforcer of panopticism's central ideas. ● A newer phenomenon is the extent to which people find it appropriate to record and post videos or photos of strangers without their consent. ● Connected concept - surveillance, digital media platforms Knowledge economy associated with Globalization ● Globalization is the second development that has contributed to giving us a global knowledge economy - it is an omnibus term used to describe and make sense of a collection of interrelated processes, including the ever-increasing international flows of people, money, and information in support of trade, production, finance, and cultural industries. ● Cell phones facilitate by design the creation, circulation, and consumption of images, sounds, and ideas from anywhere.
